Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Continuing to move forward while silently hoping that he would be lucky enough to run into a Land Creation Ream cultivator like he had done in the past when he had first attempted to leave the Verdant Abyss together with Huo Fen and Meng Jie, Xuan Hao soon realized that not everything would go the way he wanted it to.

Before a distraction had a chance to appear, the Land Creation Realm demon beast that had been rapidly catching up to him, bypassed the injured Land Creation Realm demon beast and officially stepped inside the range of his divine sense. Giving him an opportunity to see what this fast demon beast looked like for the first time... And what he ended up seeing was nothing short of surprising...

He had expected a demon beast specialized in speed to be some kind of flying demon beast, like a massive eagle or a small but fast wolf or cat like demon beast, but instead, what he ended up getting was a one-eyed bat demon beast with wings so small that they looked comical on its massive body that easily rivaled that of a small building in size.

In a sense, it was a flying demon beast, but... Those wings that were only a few times bigger than that of a normal bat made it seem more like some strange bat mutation where the wings hadn’t managed to keep up with the evolution of the rest of the body.

Strangely enough, it was this strange-looking bat demon beast that possessed a speed far surpassing that of any of the other Land Creation Realm demon beasts that were currently chasing after him and the only one who had the ability to catch up to him.

Comical as this demon beast might be, it was still a genuine Land Creation Realm demon beast, he couldn’t ignore it.

Although he had hoped to use some unlucky Land Creation realm cultivator unlucky enough to find themselves crossing his path to distract this bat demon beast, it was a little hard to do that when there wasn’t any Land Creation Realm cultivator around for him to exploit. Meaning that he would instead have to figure out a way to deal with this bat demon beast before it could catch up and delay him for long enough that the rest of the Land Creation Realm demon beasts could close the distance and work together to gang up on him.

His strength might have improved after he broke through to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm and even managed to comprehend the elusive Dao of Time, but it was far from enough for him to deal with a demon beast in the Land Creation Realm. Especially considering his strongest Dao, the Dao of Space, was essentially rendered close to useless inside the Verdant Abyss.

Not to mention, simply fighting the weird bat demon beast wasn’t enough, he would have to deal with it in the same way he had dealt with the Celestial Immortal Realm demon beasts that had blocked his path earlier, something he doubted would be possible before he himself broke through to the Land Creation Realm.

Whoosh~

Unable to figure out a way to escape from the bat demon beast without clashing with it directly for long, Xuan Hao decided to try and see if he could learn more about the bat demon beast in the short time before it caught up to him through his divine sense. Potentially any weakness that he might be able to take advantage of when it caught up to him.

Those wings...

And in the end, his focus ultimately ended up turning towards the small wings of the bat demon beast. Not just because of how comical the small pair of wings appeared on its massive frame, but instead because he could clearly sense that those seemingly small wings seemed to be the very reason for the weird bat demon beast’s terrifying speed, as they directly worked to manipulate the air currents around the bat demon beast. Allowing it to propel itself forward at a terrifying speed far beyond what it should have been able to under normal circumstances.

This form of motion relied not just on the bat demon beast’s comprehension of the Dao of Wind but also seemed to be taking advantage of some kind of higher principle or law in the Dao of Wind that was beyond the bat demon beast’s own understanding. Allowing its speed to surpass that of its peers.

But it was also this simple fact that allowed Xuan Hao to pick up on a distinct flaw in this demon beast’s movement technique. Poor maneuverability.

Fast as the weird bat demon beast was, it was clear after observing it through his divine sense that it would be extremely difficult for this demon beast to change its path. Meaning, to avoid it catching up to him, he would have to stop escaping in a straight line.

But... Moving in any other direction that isn’t a straight path towards the edge of the Verdant Abyss comes with the risk of attracting even more demon beast and potentially even a Star Creation Realm demon beast...

Weighing the benefits and negatives for a few short seconds as the bat demon beast got closer and closer to him, Xuan Hao couldn’t help frowning to himself as he did a quick scan of the area ahead in hope that a random Land Creation Realm cultivator would pop up for him to dump the bat demon beast on top of them-

Hah... No one...

Unfortunately, he didn’t find anyone standing at the ready to take the bat demon beast off his shoulders. Instead, he found that the area ahead of him seemed to be the territory of yet another powerful demon beast that should either have reached the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm or already be half a step into the realm above that.

Meaning that, the choice of what he was going to do next had already been made for him, as he made a full ninety-degree turn.

Though this would make it simpler for some of the other demon beasts at the Land Creation Realm to catch up with him. At the very least, when it came to the bat demon beast, it was completely caught off guard by the sudden sharp turn. Finding itself continuing forward into the demon beast territory for a good few seconds before it came to an abrupt stop and it turned to chase after him again.

But... Those few seconds had been more than enough time for him to widen the distance between himself and the bat demon beast, as he quickly did another ninety-degree turn back in the original direction. Inevitably buying himself another few seconds from the bat demon beast.

Of course, this entire situation did not come without cost, as the rest of the Land Creation Realm demon beast had managed to use this weird turn of his to rapidly close the distance, three of them even managing to directly enter the range of his divine sense.

Calculating the speed of these demon beasts and that of the bat demon beast, he ultimately concluded that he would be able to delay the bat demon beast for another two times before the rest of the demon beasts got too close to him that some of the ones that had originally been approaching him from an angle would be able to attack him.

Fast as he might be, this was still far from enough for him to reach the edge of the Verdant Abyss.

If he wanted to have an actual chance at reaching the edge and officially leaving the Verdant Abyss, he would have to find some way to either slow down or stop the demon beasts from chasing him.

Unfortunately, the only method he had for slowing down the demon beasts was to use an unfortunate Land Creation Realm cultivator to draw their attention away from himself, a Land Creation Realm cultivator he had yet to encounter and might not ever encounter in time.

Not to mention, Land Creation Realm cultivators wouldn’t just stand around waiting as he appeared with a large number of demon beasts chasing after him. Instead, it was far more likely that they would pack up and escape immediately upon sensing the large number of powerful demon beasts chasing after him.

His plan of dumping these demon beasts on someone else essentially relied on him managing to overtake the unsuspecting Land Creation Realm cultivator before they had time to comprehend what was happening and run away.

As for stopping the demon beasts... Only the flame imprint between his brows had some chance of being capable of doing something like that, but it seemed to be in a kind of dormant state for now. Making him extremely hesitant to rely on it.

In other words, his current situation was far from optimal, as he didn’t really have any real plan on how he would be able to either escape from or create a big enough distance between himself and the demon beasts chasing after him that he would be able to safely leave the Verdant Abyss.